Analysis of Oscar Wildes The Picture of Dorian Gray or The Importance Research Paper

Analysis of Oscar Wildes The Picture of Dorian Gray or The Importance of Being Earnest - Research Paper Example Web. A modern review of Lady Bracknell includes interviews with women and men who have played the most formidable character in Earnest. I will use this article to show how Earnest has accumulated meaning over time. Gagnier, Regenia. Idylls of the Marketplace: Oscar Wilde and the Victorian Public. Stanford: University Press Stanford, 1986. Print. This book talks about the 'truth' of Earnest, which will add a different angle to my discussion of expectations both internal and external to the play. It also talks about the popular reaction to Wilde's downfall, shortly after the play opened, which will be of use as my paper will examine not only Earnest but also its playwright. Gillespie, Michael Patrick. Oscar Wilde and the Poetics of Ambiguity. Gainesville: University Press Florida, 1996. Print. Gillespie's book talks about Earnest in terms of expectations: contemporary expectations of Wilde, of young men, and of the play genre. This is something I would like to investigate further, and with this book's help I will show how studied triviality and Wilde's reputation interacted with expectation in Earnest. Kohl, Norbert. Oscar Wilde: The Works of a Conformist Rebel. Trans. David Henry Wilson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. Print. The chapter on Earnest begins by declaring that before its first opening, audiences expected that Wilde's new play â€Å"would offer the very opposite of what was promised by the stolid-sounding title†. I find this interplay between title, content and expectation very interesting – with Earnest, was Wilde subverting expectations or living up to them? Prewitt Brown, Julia. Cosmopolitan Criticism: Oscar Wilde's Philosophy of Art. Virginia: Virginia University Press, 1997. Print. Prewitt Brown argues that Earnest â€Å"reflects the national myth of the century†, that an orphan can achieve great things in spite of uncertain origins. I will use her examples to ask whether Earnest was at all trivial, or if Wilde' s calculated superficiality is little more than a veneer. Sweet, Matthew. Inventing the Victorians. London: Faber & Faber, 2002. Print. Sweet's book offers a comprehensive new look at the Victorian era, and is very useful for subverting our expectations of Wilde's time. I will use this book to help create the background for my paper, placing us in Wilde's world rather than a modern misconception of Victorian Britain. Taylor, George. Players and Performances in the Victorian Theatre. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1989. Print. In this book George Taylor looks at Victorian drama as a whole, examining how actors felt about their art. I hope to use this as a standard of expectation and seriousness by which to compare Earnest. Expectations of, and Undermined Triviality in, The Importance of Being Earnest The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde's last play and penultimate piece of literature before his untimely death in 1900, is pivotal in the life of its playwright because it was first performed in 1895, just a few short months before Wilde was sentenced to two years' hard labor in prison for his homosexual liaisons. The play is part of Wilde's carefully cultivated persona as a dandy, creating a tone of studied triviality which was lapped up by an audience â€Å"engaged in a continuous search for bigger and better thrills†

The Ballad of the White Horse Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Ballad of the White Horse - Essay Example These lines were quoted by leading journals which were carrying war news. The Lady appearing before Alfred tells him that there is nothing much to look forward to, if it is only comfort that he is desiring. Things would only get tougher and man has to keep fighting as evil would only return stronger each time to engulf. Earl Ogier of the Stone and Sling, a General in King Gurthrum's army sings these lines in reply to the sentimental songs sung earlier by another Earl Elf, and Prince Harold before him who sang of the pleasures of this earth. He refutes their songs in which they speak about gods and women. Here he says that when all the pleasures are enjoyed , in life there is only Hate left. Having grown old, men like him and King Guthrum know that there is no such thing as true love. Chesterton with his strong faith in Roman Catholicism writes such lines to underline the state of Hell in side the minds of men of no belief. There is only despair and no faith in God to relieve the despair. This is King Gurthrum's song which express the bleakness of his heart. He sings in reply to the songs of Ogier and Elf before him , that, by now men have grown up to realize that there is no comfort of truth in any of the fanciful tales of gods and youth. The cold truth is that even gods die; even the mightiest kingdoms are raced down.